2017 - Branson and
Big Cedar Lodge Part 3
Easter Break, 2017
(created Tue. Apr. 25, 2017)
During Easter Break, 2016, we had relaxing fun in Eminence, Mansfield and Springfield, MO, so we planned a similar for Easter Break, 2017, to Branson and the nearby Big Cedar Lodge.
This year, we planned a full week at Big Cedar Lodge. Then, Saturday events for Boy Scouts and Track meant coming home a couple days early. So we have two Branson trips - one five-day trip in April and a weekend in November.
For this trip, we visited Branson for a day, and then enjoyed relaxing time at Big Cedar Lodge, just south of Branson.
This is that travelogue.
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-Day 1 - Ballwin to Branson
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-Day 2 - Taneycomo Fishing and Branson-to-Big Cedar Lodge
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-Day 3 - Dogwood Canyon - TROUT!
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-Day 4 - Fun in The Rain and Big Cedar Flowers in the Rain
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-Day 5 - Driving Home
This page presents
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-Day 4 - Fun in The Rain and Big Cedar Flowers in the Rain
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-Day 5 - Driving Home
Day 4 - Fun in the Rain
We knew rain had been forecast for Thursday and Friday before we left. We didn’t expect the week-out forecast to be that accurate, but it was. And we didn’t expect that it would rain most of the next week, resulting in record floods the first week of May, but it did.
But we made the best of it on Thursday.
We enjoyed shuffleboard in the rain.
And we enjoyed mini-golf after the rain.
Some of the holes were flooded and that made for some fun barefoot mini golf!
And Abby captured some awesome photos of flowers around Big Cedar.
most are captured with the fish-eye lens on Olloclip’s 4-in-1 lens.
see link on http://vanvooren.us/Photography/Olloclip.html
this image is captured with CocoLogic’s ProCamera app
(as are all other photos save the time lapsed ones)
see link on http://vanvooren.us/Photography/SmartPhone_Cameras.html
this image is edited with CocoLogic’s ProCamera app - Abby adjusted contrast, the colors, etc, using an in-app purchase (<$5) - awesome!)
see link on http://vanvooren.us/Photography/SmartPhone_Cameras.html
this image is captured with the 7x macro lens on Olloclip’s 4-in-1 lens.
see link on http://vanvooren.us/Photography/Olloclip.html
Matt and Dad discovered a waterfall, and we took Mom and Abby to see it, and to take some photos.
this image is captured using Cogitap’s Slow Shutter Cam.
Settings: Motion Blur; blur strength: maximum, 2 second exposure.
see link on http://vanvooren.us/Photography/SmartPhone_Cameras.html
Abby captured this image with CocoLogic’s ProCamera app
(as are all other photos save the time lapsed ones)
see link on http://vanvooren.us/Photography/SmartPhone_Cameras.html
On the way back, Abby and Dad stepped into a restaurant to dry off, and the host helped us by getting two lemons from the kitchen, to use in cooking the fish. That was wonderfully generous!
After dinner, we went to the pool. It was quite foggy, and the fog was rolling up the hillside - awesome! Matt went back to the room to get his iPod, to capture some photos, and before he could return, the skies opened up. They closed the pool and everyone walked home, thoroughly wet... and smiling!
Day 5 -The Drive Home
Given the rain, we enjoyed a brief paddleboat ride...
... and on the walk down the dock to the paddleboats, we saw another great blue heron!
Matt and Mom paddled a long way, to the bottom of the Devil’s pool.
...Abby and Dad paddled across the cove, where Abby visited a waterfall...
and on the way out of Big Cedar, we visited the Devil’s Pool waterfall
Looking below the left side of the bridge...
... looking below the right side of the bridge...
.... and headed home...
remember back to... Tuesday’s sun-shiny arrival
compare with... Friday’s rainy departure
... with another stop at Lambert’s, in Ozark, just south of Springfield.
Dad captured a rainy
Hubble Highway” sign:
(Ctl-+ to zoom in)
The drive home was through a lot of rain, which didn’t let up until we got near St. Clair.
We got home early enough to pick up Backes at No Leash Needed.
Epilogue... The Flood of May, 2017
While April had seemed a bit wetter than usual prior to our trip, we didn’t think much about it... until a couple weeks later.
The rain we experienced in Branson, and especially on the drive home, persisted for weeks... heavy rain.
New Years, 2016 had seen flooding on the Meramec River of historic proportions. Castlewood Park floods regularly, but never before had the railroad tracks that pass through the park been flooded. There are placed in the park where you can see railroad ties sitting up in the trees, deposited there by those floods.
This flood of May, 2017 was within a half inch of the 2016 flood.
Dogwood Canyon was flooded.
As of today - May 21, it is still closed. It looks like the animals were all taken to higher ground, but it looks like the buildings were flooded.
image source:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTr2_vgDY-J/?taken-by=bigcedarlodge
These two images show two different perspectives on just how high the water in Indian Creek flowed from all the rainfall:
source of the images:
http://www.dogwoodcanyon.org/Page/Gallery.aspx
Some of the many flood videos from closer to St. Louis are the following:
Meramec Flooding May 2nd 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBG9oHtlWJc
“New Meramec River forecasts show record or near-record crests coming in Eureka, Valley Park” - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
05-30-2017-Interstate-44-Flooding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i9Go-QwcWE
5-3-2017 - Valley Park, Missouri - Record Flood, National Guard, Evacuees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z89_XRJBaFs
Gasconade River Flooding - Jerome, Mo
04-30-2017, Lakeside, Missouri- Bagnell Dam with flood gates open and flooding down river
Drone Footage - Flooding in Missouri - April 30, 2017
5-2-2017 Fenton, Mo and Valley Park flooding I-44 aerial footage drone businesses submerged
04-30-2017 Branson, MO - Table Rock Dam flood gates
Lake Taneycomo flooding out Branson Landing, Branson, Missouri
Branson, Missouri - DRONE - Table Rock Dam Release/Flooding/Interview With Victim - April 30th, 2017
And, from the 2015 / 2016 Flooding…
2015-2016 Meramec Flood – Castlewood State Park – over the UP / Union Pacific track for the first time ever
To the best of my knowledge, the water had never been in the park in any of the areas shown up to the 1:30 minute mark.
St. Louis Flood of 2015 - Castlewood State Park - December 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1VfzGo3Rzk
Castlewood State Park - Flood of 2015. Short aerial video of the destruction caused by the 2015 flood near St. Louis, MO.
2015-2016 Meramec Flood – Valley Park, including I-44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWNnK6zEG6I
Drone footage of flooding in St Louis Valley Park Missouri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGdfpuTg_lM
From NASA
Rainfall Accumulation over the United States for December 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9gmD5IXpn8
This animation shows the accumulation of rainfall over the United States during December 2015, from the IMERG precipitation dataset. The black outline indicates the Mississippi-Missouri River basin...
A video of a more positive, and “uplifting” note:
MissouriSkies
Foggy Flight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze8F_7LLAg8
And the flooding was bad in Arkansas, too, as the Washington Post reported.
Our prayers are with all who are affected.
Links to the rest of this travel journal:
